School Of Graduate Study University of College London Area of Research Interest

1) A Web-Based Complex Multiple Contract Management Environment The project is intended to support the current innovation activities by creating, developing and implementing a new set of web-enabled decision tools that is underpinned by a formal data structure. At a broader level this system might have both revenue generating and asset creating capabilities for all levels of the organisation. The intention is to enable the case studies to inform current and future contracts as evidence of on-going development for existing key performance indicators and to support future tenders with this evidence based approach to costing and innovation potential. This could extend to contract risk assessment and long term performance metrics.
2) A Supply Chain Focused Approach to Facilities Management Sustainability The expansion of the knowledge base in the area of sustainable facilities management will enable Modus, the MOD, shareholders and the supply chain to benefit through the application of the knowledge developed. Sustainable facilities management involves the delivery of services to the business with minimum impact upon the environment without having an overly detrimental impact upon the core business operations. In Modus it may involve, for example, the use of brown water from the River Thames or elsewhere in preference to mains supplied for certain operations or the use of solar panels to deliver electrical power or the local sourcing of catering produce. The diversity of facilities management operations contributes to the complexity of the task of producing a sustainability strategy. 3) A Virtual Environment Solution to Building Component Failure

Hard facilities management providers deal with every aspect of the development, construction and infrastructure process - from design right through to management. The industry has specialist skills ranging from piling and foundations, through mechanical and electrical engineering, steel decking, to civil engineering, infrastructure services and utilities work. Building component life cycle costing is currently undertaken in a limited way due to the lack of systems and data relating to past failures. The challenge is to develop an industry compatible system that is both usable and commercially viable. A framework will be established enabling a greater understanding of the life cycle costing potential in hard facilities management (FM) contracts. The life cycle costing model theory, reporting mechanisms and the current computer aided FM systems will be evaluated enabling identification of areas of success and failure

The new predictive life cycle costing model will be implemented, tested and embedded using the Skanska managed portfolio as a pilot. A revised strategy will be developed to compliment the new system.

4) Energy Consumption In Office Buildings

Different HVAC systems have different energy requirements when responding to the same building heating and cooling demands. On the other hand, building heating and cooling demands depend on various parameters such as building fabrics, glazing ratio, building form, occupancy pattern, and many others. HVAC systems energy requirements and building energy demands can be determined by mathematical modelling. Widely accepted approach among building professionals is to use building energy simulation tools such as Energy Plus, IES, DOE2, etc. which can precisely predict building energy consumption. However, preparing and running simulations in such tools is usually very complicated, time consuming and costly. Their complexity has been identified as the biggest obstacle. Adequate alternatives to complex building energy simulation tools are regression models which can provide results in an easier and faster way. This research deals with the development of regression models which enable the selection of HVAC system for office buildings. In addition, the models are able to predict annual heating, cooling and auxiliary energy requirements of different HVAC systems as a function of office building heating and cooling demands. As the first part of the data set development used for the regression analysis, the data set of office building simulation archetypes was developed. The four most typical building built forms narrow plan, open plan, combination of two and court-yard) were coupled with five types of building fabrics, three levels of glazing ratio, two measures of solar heat gains protection and daylight control. In total 3840 different office buildings were then further coupled with five different HVAC systems: variable air volume system, constant air volume system, fancoil system with dedicated air, chilled ceiling system with embedded pipes, dedicated air and radiator heating, and chilled ceiling system with exposed aluminium panels, dedicated air and radiator heating. Total number of models simulated in EnergyPlus was 23040. The obtained results clearly indicate that it is possible to form reliable judgement about different HVAC systems heating, cooling and auxiliary energy requirements based only on office building heating and cooling demands. High coefficients of determination of proposed regression models prove that HVAC systems requirements can be predicted with great accuracy. The lowest coefficient of determination among cooling regression models was 0.94 in the case of CAV system. HVAC systems heating energy requirements regression models had the coefficient of determination above 0.96. The auxiliary energy requirements models had the coefficient of determination above 0.95 except in the case of chilled ceiling systems where the coefficient of determination was around 0.87.